Scuba Diving The Ballroom at Ginnie Springs
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- Опубліковано 6 вер 2024
- First visit to Ginnie Springs in High Springs, FL for a day of diving. The day started with exploring "The Ballroom". We pretty much had the entire basin to ourselves for most of the morning until we made our ascent.
Description of the Ballroom from www.ginniepringsoutdoors.com:
The Ginnie Spring basin is a large, bowl-shaped depression measuring over 100 feet across and 15 feet deep. A 150-foot long run connects the basin to the nearby Santa Fe River. The chief attraction here is the Ginnie Cavern, whose wide, open entrance can be found at the bottom of the basin.
The cavern’s upper room is illuminated by light from the entrance. Looking back toward the entrance from this room provides a breathtaking view. Like most of the cavern, the upper room’s walls are composed of an extremely light and highly reflective limestone, which adds to its natural beauty.
Moving to the back of the upper room, divers pass through a large opening into the amphitheater-sized area called the “Ballroom.”
At the very back of the Ballroom (a maximum depth of 50 feet), is a large, welded grate. This grate prevents divers from entering the dangerous, silty and maze-like cave system that lies beyond. Nevertheless, most divers enjoy pulling themselves up to the grate, so that they can experience the “in-your-face” force of the 35 million gallons of water a day that pass through the opening.
I was able to get an idea of depth with this video, thanks.
Great underwater views of the lime rock formations, fish , & vents in Ginnie...still cold @ 73 degrees!! High Springs is one of my favorite Antique Destinations!!
Was definitely a cool place. Have some more video from exploring the Devil's Spring System that im working on next.
We did the first part of my diving certification here. It was a great experience and I can wait to return this year
I highly recommend Blue Grotto, I did my open water certification there and loved it. Even got to do a 100ft dive.
@@zazerzo it is a good place to dive. I've been once but I want to go back. With the way work has been I don't think it will be anytime soon.
Not dived Ginnie yet but this looks awfully like cave to me. One light, one tank? I sure hope this can still be described as a cavern on some level....
It still counts as a cavern. As long as you can still see light it's a cavern
You can freedive all the way back to the grate. It would be very, very difficult to get lost in there to the point where one light/one tank becomes an issue. You're never really more than 20 seconds away from the surface (idk maybe scuba guys swim slower but the current is pushing you out)
It’s a cavern opening that leads to caves, not a cave itself. Also the maze of caves are sealed with a steel grate so no one travels in.
I love diving ginnie and ichetucknee so much. I just wish the water was a bit warmer 😂
THATS THE BEST PART COLD WATER !
All the way to the bottom ?! All 8 ft ?
... just fckn around lol great vid. Truth be told I have all my gear and looked forward to a ginnie dive. Everyone has to be gone by noon tomorrow. :/ guess ill try to find a boat. :(
What a fantastic looking dive! I assume that is a fresh water dive?
Yes it's a freshwater spring in Northern Florida
Some of the fish were throwing me off and thanks!
How far back from the mouth of the cavern is the ballroom?
I would say thirty feet or so. I have never gone in with a light and i think the ballroom begins where the light stops hitting
Please be careful. I’m not sure if you’re behind the camera or the one being filmed. But the guy with split fins is dangerous.
What did he do
@@Devast8r34 his ascent to the surface was too fast. But worse his console and octo are hanging, which means they’re dragging. Which means if his buddy runs out of air he will get a blast of sand to the back of his throat when he takes that yellow octo. Dealing with an out of air situation is bad enough, made much worse then sand is causing the octo to work improperly.
The console dragging is a hazard if they were to enter a silted area as well, unknowingly kicking up silt for his buddy behind him. Even worse if he’s the last diver he’s unknowingly creating a possible silt out behind the entire team that they won’t know about until they turn the dive.
@@Devast8r34 that's what he did
@@joshuaunderwood1873 It's a giant cavern lol it's totally safe even for complete novices. There's no silt or danger of getting lost and running out of air.
@@squarecracker it’s actually not a giant cavern it’s relatively small comparatively. It’s ludicrous to say there’s no chance of running out of air and just shows me you’re not cave trained. However, I NEVER said he could get lost. Didn’t even allude too it. But “giant” cavern is still an overhead environment.
Music?
Divers (me included) got wetsuits and even dry suits. And young girls are swimming in bikini.
Right but they are not staying in the water for 45min or more at a time and they stay well above the thermoclines :)
No thermocline fresh water spring temp about 70
@@edwardlyden7902 good to know. Thanks for that info, however at 70 degrees you are still loosing heat at an incredible rate so if you stay down long enough you will become hypothermic. The people swimming are in and out and can stay warm enough.